Adreena Torrez told Action News /*Vanessa Rincon*/ just wasn't herself lately. Still, she never thought the woman would harm her own child. "She said weird things were happening. And she wanted somebody right there with her," said Adreena Torrez.
Torrez says Rincon's behavior had taken a strange turn during the last week but nothing could have prepared her for the police scene she saw at her friend's apartment Tuesday. Investigators said that's where officers found a three-year-old, facedown on a stairwell. They say his mother was nearby and told officers she had stabbed the child. A baby girl was also found in the apartment unharmed.
Torrez said she wants people to know her friend was a good mother who was excited about the birth of her second child just two months ago. Torrez said Rincon had recently told friends she was having weird dreams about the devil and she didn't want to be alone. "She was really telling her, I want ... I need somebody to come over. And you know, be there with her. She was scared," said Torrez.
Torrez believes those could have been warning signs. Torrez said she's not trying to make an excuse for her friend's actions, but she thinks Rincon deserves the chance to get the help she needs. "If we would have listened to her the night when she called, and we would have went to her, I think we could have prevented this from happening. I think she really needed a friend, and we weren't there for her," said Torrez.
Rincon's family members told Action News they had stopped talking to her recently, and they suspected she was on drugs. But Torrez said she didn't know of any drug use. While the three-year-old remains hospitalized, his two month old sister is in the custody of Child Protective Services.
